Anthony Paul Zanesco, Brandon King, Chivon Powers et al.
20 citations
Sustained attention tasks often reduce the ability to discriminate goal-relevant stimuli over time. Intensive training in shamatha (focused-attention) meditation can improve perceptual discrimination of difficult-to-see visual stimuli. In two 3-month meditation retreats, participants performed a continuous performance task at three time points. In Retreat 1, the target difficulty was adjusted to match each participant's improving perceptual capacity, and no training effects on brain activity were observed. In Retreat 2, the target difficulty was held constant, leading to earlier onset of sensory brain signals and reduced performance decline over time. Changes in later processing stages correlated with improvements in perceptual threshold. The findings suggest that meditation-related improvements in perceptual discrimination can alter electrophysiological markers of attention and perception, but only when task demands allow discrimination capacity to exceed target difficulty.
Donal G. Maccoon, Katherine A. Maclean, Richard Davidson et al.
9 citations
Eight weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training did not improve sustained attention or visual discrimination more than an active control program (Health Enhancement Program) in a randomized trial with 63 community adults. The study had sufficient statistical power to show that the two groups did not differ in their improvement over time on a continuous performance task. One prediction about attentional fatigue was statistically significant but uninterpretable. Some evidence for improved visual discrimination partially replicated earlier findings. Attentional sensitivity appears unaffected by MBSR, but whether mindfulness might benefit vigilance remains unclear.
Anthony Paul Zanesco, Brandon King, Katherine Maclean et al.
6 citations
Intensive meditation training over three months improved sustained attention and response inhibition, and these gains were partially maintained up to seven years later. Continued meditation practice during the follow-up period moderated age-related declines in response inhibition accuracy and reaction time variability. The findings suggest that dedicated mental training can produce lasting benefits for cognitive health and alter long-term cognitive trajectories as people age.
Anthony Paul Zanesco, Brandon King, Katherine A. Maclean et al.
1 citation
After one month of intensive daily Vipassana meditation training, participants showed improved response inhibition accuracy and reduced reaction time variability on a 32-minute task compared to matched controls. They also reported increased concentration during the task, but not changes in effort or motivation. Critically, the increases in concentration predicted improvements in reaction time variability, linking the subjective experience of concentrative engagement with objective attentional stability. These results corroborate phenomenological accounts from contemplative traditions that meditation training leads to stable, clear attentional engagement, and suggest that meditators' felt experience accurately reflects measurable changes in performance.
Manish Saggar, Brandon King, Anthony Paul Zanesco et al.
1 citation
Intensive meditation training over three months produces replicable changes in brain electrical activity. Retreat participants who practiced focused attention meditation showed reduced beta-band brain wave power over front and back regions of the scalp during mindfulness of breathing. Individual alpha frequency also decreased across retreats, and the decrease was directly related to the amount of meditation practice. These changes in brain oscillatory patterns may underlie improvements in attention and cognition from contemplative practice.